Alla Nazimova vs. Theda Bara

Alla

VS

Theda

After the soul draining experience that was Camille; a thought dawned on me. Alla Nazimova was supposedly a Power Lesbian, over dramatic, sexually controlling woman (both in real life and in film...not that you could tell the difference.) Something about that idea seemed familiar to me. Then it dawned on me: Miss Theda Bara.

Poor Theda. If any silent star got a thoroughly raw deal she did. First she had a relatively short shelf life in the public eye...about 5 years (like Nazimova). Second she married that jackass Charles Brabin. You can thank him for not only ruining the original original Ben Hur (the unmade June Mathis one) but for also telling his wife it was 'unbecoming' for her to carry on a career. Thus a radio appearance here or there Theda retired for good. She never made a talkie.

THEN to seal it all off a studio fire in the late 30s destroyed a good 90% of her films. She made quite a few features (nowhere near Pickford level but still) and thanks to said fire only 3 features, 1 short, and a few snippets exist. Its hard enough for people to remember any silent star who never passed talkies, but even harder when their legacy is wiped out in one swipe! Especially so early on...around 1940 you could get silent films for free, they had no value to anyone at the time (and thus why the 'Silent Movie Theatre' was created!)

To top it off critics (and even some fans) write Theda off as 'a poor actress' and the most generous of comments run along the lines of, "It is evident her best work no longer exists". You'd think from said descriptions she was some overacting pain to watch...like Nazimova in Camille! The below clip is from 'Unchastened Woman' which is slightly unvamp like. But it does prove the point. She wasn't so bad you wanted to tear your eyes out.

In fact when Theda was in full Vamp mode (A fool there was, which is available on DVD) she was downright spectacular. No...she was no Pickford...but she was fun, she was sexy, and she did what she did well. In "A fool there was" she's a 'vampire' who seeks lovers for their wealth and her own satisfaction, destroys them (either finacially, emotionally, or literally), and finds a new one. When her now latest ex confronts her on the boat with a gun she just taunts him and says, "Kiss me, my fool" and somehow wrangles the gun from him and kills him. Excellent. And entertaining. I gotta say...Theda Bara was pretty bad ass. At least on screen.

Both Nazimova and Bara played man eating, bad ass, dramatic, women on screen. But in my opinion Alla Nazimova COPIED Theda Bara. Yes...I went there.

For starters Theda's first (and major) film was released in 1914 and she was steadily popular until about 1918 (when the War broke out and Vamps seemed passe). Nazimova's first film was in 1915 and it took a year or so for her to really gain popularity, and she lost it around 1918/1919. Oh both women kept on till about 1921...but neither had the same box office appeal they once had.

To further back my theory beyond the obvious (that the jist of Nazimova copied the jist of Theda) there were a few overlapping films. Theda made Camille in 1917...right before Cleopatra one of her biggest hits. Of course this is all lost now so how amazing or not these films were may never be known. Nazimova made Camille in 1921...as she had last her common man appeal this was one of the final nails in the popularity coffin. Theda made Salome in 1918, Nazimova made it in 1923. In both cases Theda made her films during her popularity, Nazimova made them when hers was waning.

I think that sums it up nicely. Theda was almost 30 when she got into pictures and went along with a ridiculous publicity campaign pretending to be exotic and occultish (Arab Death). It worked well and she played it up as long as she could. She made films that pleased her public. Then she'd go home and be a good little Jewish girl, read books, and be normal. She wasn't trying to be 'arty'.

However Nazimova did the opposite. She took the same basic idea, declared it should be art, and completely made no sense while doing so. She alienated the public at large (on purpose) and went home at the end of the day and continued to live wildly (or even more wild) off screen.

What gets me more than anything I think is that as I've said before Nazimova is remembered and regarded so highly. While Theda is regarded as pointless bad kitsch. I say reverse those labels people. I'll sit through a Theda film ANY day. Such a shame the fire situation wasn't reversed, the world could have done with out the 23 version of Salome; but Id like to see the 18 version. Actually more than anything Id kill to see Cleopatra. I'm sure it was amazing if "A fool there was" is anything to go off.